By: Mark Glennon*
“It’s gonna get a little hot in this city in the next few months” over contract negotiations with teachers. That’s from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ address to the City Club of Chicago yesterday.
That sure sounds right based on the rest of her speech. Gates told us what the CTU is. “We are a whole bunch of people who have been told no. Don’t, Forget about it. Don’t even think about it. No. Poo.” And this time, they won’t accept those answers, which was the primary point of the speech. It’s all part of the CTU’s broader “movement,” a term she used throughout the speech.
On that nasty subject of (dare I say this?) money, Gates was stridently indifferent.“They’re gonna say, ‘these are great proposals and can’t nobody pay for it and CTU with all of this, that and the other and who’s gonna pay for it, Stacy?’ ”
“Stop asking that question,” she said. “Ask another question.”
This is in a city, mind you, that already spends an astonishing $29,000 per student, including all sources and money for the capital budget. And Chicago Public Schools already faces a $391 million deficit for next and nearly $700 million for the following year when “Covid relief” money will have run out.
Maybe, actually, Gates did offer a number on cost. The problem is that opinions differ on whether she was joking or serious: $50 billion!
Specifically, she said it will cost “$50 billion dollars and three cents… And so what? That’s audacity.”
Sarah Karp at WBEZ reported that Gates said that jokingly, but I asked a CTU member who knows Gates quite well if she was kidding. The answer I got: “Nope. She is insane.”
A clip of that part of the speech is here, so judge for yourself. In the City Club Q&A, predictably, nothing was asked about the cost of CTU demands. For a little context, $50 billion would be roughly five times the current Chicago school budget and over double what the State of Illinois collects every year for income taxes.
Later in the day, Gates added that she expects some of the money needed for new contract demands will come from TIFs — tax increment finance districts — that Mayor Johnson is overhauling. “Billions” will be available, she claimed. We’ll see.
A particularly galling part of the speech is what Gates said about schools closed when Rahm Emanuel was mayor. “When you ask me why I don’t compromise or am so strident,” she said that’s what happens when “you watch black women beg for their schools to be open. It felt like a theme from Roots.” Good grief. Nobody fought more relentlessly than the CTU to keep schools closed because of Covid, long after they had jumped the line on most everybody else for vaccinations.
Gates’ speech was peppered with claims of sexism and racism against Chicago teachers and schools. In this country and this society, “Women are supposed to ask and beg. We are supposed to ask and to beg for an abortion, we are supposed to ask and beg for a child through IVF, beg for a wage, are supposed to ask somewhat for a fair wage,” she said. “The city is light years behind in the justice and equity owed to its people…. MAGA wants me on a plantation.” Regarding private schools, she said “y’all don’t want a place for black kids anyway.” Regarding her alleged influence over former CTU worker Brandon Johnson, she said, “I’m not going to be part of the narrative of Lady Macbeth to a Black man that doesn’t have a brain. Like, that ain’t my role. My role is to run the Chicago Teachers Union.” About Texas enforcing the border on its own and sending migrants to Chicago, she said that “feels like Confederate behavior.”
The history teacher also said history books used to say blacks “got on a luxury ship on the west side of Africa and came to learn artisanal skills on a large farm.”
Gates did say something very sensible. When trying to enlist supporters for her movement, she said the CTU labels people they contact from 1 through 5. To paraphrase, she said 1s and 2s are likely allies, though maybe with a little work. “The 3s are people who want to ask more questions and may come back later,” she said. The 4s and 5s are not likely to help or are opponents. “I like the 3s,” Gates said, “because 3s show discernment, 3s have good questions, 3s are engaged.”
Which leads me to the first memory I have about Chicago Public School, from when I was in school in the suburbs. It was while my dad was driving me to school listening to WGN AM, as he usually did. A story ran about mismanagement or corruption of some kind at “Pershing Road.” What’s that? I asked my dad. It was another name for Chicago schools, he explained, because that’s where Chicago schools were headquartered.
“Wait, that can’t be right,” I said, or something to that effect. “Schools are good. Their people are good. That can’t be happening with their schools.”
No, sorry, my dad explained, that’s not always quite so with Chicago schools and the teachers’ union.
As the CTU ranks people, I went from a 1 to a 3 that day many years ago. Count me as a rock solid 5 today.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
How about this question SDG, have you paid all your taxes and fines in IN yet?!!
The CTU has destroyed the CPS, and the hopes of generations to come.
After reading the WirePoints article listing the demands of the CTU, it is time to close CPS. Just close it, declare bankruptcy and start over…or not. There is a demand in the list for the tax payer to pay for their housing. Housing. Good God. Are we done here?! This needs to end.
Yup, close it down and reconstitute it, as Detroit did with its school district. We’ve been explaining and endorsing that for years:https://wirepoints.org/isnt-wholesale-reconstitwholesale-reconstitution-of-cps-the-only-real-optionution-of-cps-the-only-real-alternative-wp-original/
This is no surprise the CTU has a president like this. The CTU has been a socialist organization since its teachers first unionized with larger, national socialist and communist unions before forming the CTU off-shoot. The fact that Gates is in charge and acts and talks the way she does is no surprise. As I always say, I’m not obsessed with race, but our enemies are obsessed with race, and everything they do or say is filtered through a lens of race: Although this is Ms. Gate’s time in the sun, the bigger issue for Ms. Gates is the demographic… Read more »
Dissolve the contracts when they expire. Tell the unions Thanks but no thanks and start from ground zero. The CTU has proven that they could care less about educating children. Their only priority is lining their pockets and demanding that the taxpayer actually give them more to do that.
This charade has to end. Take back control from unelected players.
This witch is so angry, nasty, low IQ, can’t speak coherently, only speaks ebonics, thinks money grows on trees, and is ultraracist against white ppl. A sorry excuse for a human. Truly breathtaking.
Mark: Saw your article on zerohedge yesterday !
PS: She says MAGA wants her on a plantation. That’s just a mentally ill statement. And to which we’d respond to her tirade — she’s not helping to make Chicago great again — and that’s the understatement of the year, re the city’s problems.
Yes, 150K page views on it over there at ZeroHedge.
Gates is the poster child for school vouchers.
Once again; it’s the Ghettoization of America.
Gates makes about 300G a year and probably considers herself poor. She also has no concept of financial responsibility as evidence by not paying her Chicago water bill stating her home in Indiana is her primary residence. Does anyone expect her to be fiscally responsible here?
Chicago voters, knowingly or not, voted for the guy who was beholden to CTU. And now it’s going to cost Chicago’s taxpayers – big time. BIG TIME. Based on Mayor Johnson’s statements and actions to-date, it’s “open pocketbook” for CTU and the (“white privilege”) taxpayers are stuck paying for Stacy-Gates’ Christmas Wishlist. The woman apparently doesn’t even live in Chicago. How that works, no one in City Hall can bother to explain. But then CFD’s chief also doesn’t live in Chicago, nor reportedly Mayor BJ himself. We Chicago taxpayers are living the Chinese proverb curse: may you live in interesting… Read more »
Open pocketbook my ass. Labor unions won’t even back Johnson’s mansion tax.
They can demand whatever they want but getting it will be the difficult part. It seems they forget that they are just employed by the district. They have no rights other than being employees. They collectively or as individuals cannot buy or sell anything that is part of the district. They cannot sell a building and keep the profits. They cannot sell any supplies owned by the district. They have no stocks they can purchase as part of a profit sharing like in public companies. They do have the right to elect or vote for representation. Here is some info… Read more »
But Mayor Johnson owes his entire political career to Gates and Preckwinkle. CTU will prevail, no matter the fury and outcry.
Unfortunately our cone head pos boy mayor will give in and she will get it.
Really scary how Davis-Gates is a history teacher. She must be teaching 1619 history, CRT, and her own Communist opinions to the kids. Has she paid her $6000 utility bill yet?
“History” is relative for CPS curriculum. Johnson prides himself in not having assigned homework, and focusing classroom time on “self esteem development” for students.
The fundamental concept behind all of economic is dealing with scarcity. The fundamental principle of progressives is denying scarcity.
The great Con begins again.
She sounds a lot like Hamas. Destroy the place to save it from … what? The CTU has no objective but to perpetuate itself and to enrich those who care about nothing other than their own self-enrichment. Teachers want more now and more in perpetuity after they retire and move away from the nests they have fouled. Job security followed ASAP by a free ride. Enabled by the laws and by the law-makers and the judges who have identical objectives. Time for a lock-out.
Had the chance to spend some time in an “almost” selective enrollment school over the last few weeks… My God, CPS is a complete mess… Every administrator, in spite of nature’s abhorrence of a vacuum, should resign in disgrace… The magnitude of their failure in their proscribed task of educating our children is wider than the Grand Canyon… So, Stacy, be glad you don’t live in Japan where the culture takes a different take on failure, other than DOUBLING DOWN…
Mark, good article and couldn’t agree more. There us an inverse ratio between CPS student proficiency and CTU ascending power that traces back to the 80’s. Good to hear a reflection on your dad. I loved Bill, a great guy.
Thank you, Chris. You were a tireless, devoted worker for my dad’s little company, helping keep the bills paid for our family. Hope all is well with you.
She certainly fits the bill for what we’ve come to expect. Her, Dolton Queen, Raggedy and all the rest. “ It’s their turn!”.
Pretty soon we’ll need a prison just for politicians and the rest of the crooked crowd.
That can be accomplished!
Steal everything that’s not nailed down, and come back with a claw hammer to steal everything that IS nailed down.
How about get off your butt and put a stop to this instead?
“We wuz Kangs!”
“People of color”, have proven that they can be just as corrupt and crooked as the “racist” Daley, Madigans and Burkes. She is a caricature of person; venal, greedy, vindictive. “They” hold all the top jobs in the county and it is much worse off than when it was run by people who truly disregarded them. That is saying something.
If your a CTU member, the majority of whom are White and making well over +$100k, what’s not to like about the Stacy show? She does her equity hustle shtick about being a Black woman victim and teacher/union organizer fighting the system in systemic dis-invested Black CPS and the press and pols go gobble it up. She never mentioned Latinos who are the majority at CPS at this point or Whites, Asians, etc ,or the insane $ being currently spent, or abysmal student performance. The problem is the few people that vote are either in on the $equity hustle$ (gov… Read more »
You’re
Abysmal performance, indeed. Should we assume you are a graduate of the Chicago Public School system?
Are folks pulled us out in 8th grade way back in the 60s to early 70s. How about you?…. How about Stacy, Brandon, Sharkey, Tony, or folks at city club, etc?……does it ever strike anyone that all these progressive/equity hustler/ activist types are from somewhere else who came to Chicago to get setup in activist politics while making big $bucks$ on the taxpayers dime….there’s a name for that but I wont use it.
Are folks or our folks? lol
They should have enrolled you in another school after 8th grade.
CTU/Stacy’s doing her Black woman systemic racist victim sthick/ address to her hoity-toity City Club base. Not somewhere in Englewood…that’s all you got to know
This person is nuts. As a former teachers union representative the job of the union is to take care of the teacher, period. Benefits and working conditions. Today’s union officials have gone from that to social warriors with our taxpayers money while the education level of our children has crashed and is burning. But it seem that the citizens of Chicago could care less. It is evident in how many of them vote and who they get as elected officials. Is it any wonder why, once great cities, are pits of corruption, drug use, gangs and filth. Good luck Chicago.
Citizens of Chicago care a lot! I post here every day. Almost all of the public figures criticized by Wirepoints have extremely low public approval ratings.
Don’t let the doom trolls on here fool you into thinking they’re an adequate representation of the public. Critical evaluation of their messaging reveals duplicity, and that’s why the same folks that claim Illinois is doomed post here all day every day. Nobody of sound mind persistently revisits what they perceive as a loosing situation.
Dave, I admire your positive spirit, but you apparently don’t live in the real world… in our present state “losing situations” are now the “new normal”, and most people are too dumb/disengaged to care… I’ve been heavily involved in several local issues here in Evanston, and when I got in “the thick of things”, I was appalled by the actions of Our Dear Leaders and their followers who should supposedly “know better”… they simply ignore facts and carry on with their moronic beliefs and behaviors and casually flout laws and rules – and this flows downwards from the very “top… Read more »
Highly educated but Marxist nonetheless. Agree with you, it’s hard for Dave but he is not seeing the critical mass and doing the math. Yes, the opinions show poor performance. Only thing that really counts is they are being re-elected year after year. This means they have enough critical mass to continue with this stupidity until God knows when. There are so many people who are disengaging at the city and state level that once an honest assessment of the business, entrepreneur, and average citizen numbers are counted the results will be so catastrophic that they will be buried and… Read more »
She is an accurate reflection of the people who elected her. No achievement goals. No school consolidation. No concern for anything but $$$.
Just more evidence, like more was needed, that collapse is needed before any meaningful change can begin for the citizens.
PS: Ms Gates seems like a scary nut job, devoid of any reality except her fantasies.
Detroit and Baltimore and Milwaukee and Flint and East St. Louis collapsed decades ago. Has there ever been any meaningful recovery? No, everyone leaves.
Is there some particular reason why you spend all of your free time forecasting doom and urging folks to leave? If I thought a meteor was going to hit soon, I’d go on vacation and quit posting.
I told you before, I have a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ time during business hours
The meteor hit a long time ago Dave. You are just starting to see the aftermath of the wasteland as it descends into chaos.
You’re a quitter and aren’t going to get very far in life if you’re scared of politicians with 10% approval ratings. Looking the other way while they collapse a perfectly good system isn’t going to help anybody.
You are now raving, incoherently – take a break.
Quitting Illinois and Chicago is actually one of the most intelligent and rational things a person can do. Quite the opposite.
“perfectly good system” which is run by one party and has been run by one party for so long that it’s cratering in on itself. Move out of the way before it caves in on you!
Chicago just might have the most uncaring, inept, corrupt leaders of any major city in modern history. What does that say about its residents?
Teachers have been telling us for a long time how difficult it is to be a teacher. They blame everything outside the school for the problems, and continue voting for people like Stacy Davis Gates to lead their union.
Maybe someday teachers will connect the dots from insane leadership to the disaster in their classrooms. They can vote for leaders who have a grip on reality. Or they can continue worshipping victimhood and screaming about oppression. The choice is theirs.
This idiot doesn’t want to pay for anything, even her own utility bills. She’s a tax cheat as well. She expects you to pay for everything, you know, because of equity and stuff. A perpetual victim. Good luck Chicago, you’re screwed.
In response to your question posted yesterday, people like you are why nothing ever changes.
Is it “pamphlet” time yet?
When do you announce your candidacy Mr. Fix-it?
Trashing my neighborhood is the next best option since public office didn’t work out for you 20 years ago? You’re absolutely diabolical!